AFTER being cast as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, former EastEnder Martine McCutcheon (left) almost missed the first night. Her repeated illness threw the production into turmoil, leaving understudies to perform more often than she did, and when it moved from the National Theatre to London's West End she quit. Astonishingly, last week the actress picked up a Laurence Olivier Award. "It meant so much to me," she gushed. "It was more important than love, or relationships or anything. It was my baby." Why then, you have to wonder, did she give it away?